As the healthcare landscape undergoes transformation due to factors like aging populations, rising chronic diseases, and shifts in lifestyle choices, technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), is playing an increasingly vital role. A recent survey highlights how patients’ familiarity with AI significantly influences their comfort level when considering healthcare facilities utilizing this technology, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s recent survey*, “Thematic Intelligence: AI in Clinical Practice – Patient Perspective 2023,” reveals that out of surveyed patients who were familiar with AI, 60% were either very or quite comfortable with using healthcare facility that uses AI, while of the ones who were not familiar with AI, only 7% were.

Urte Jakimaviciute, Senior Director of Market Research at GlobalData, comments: “AI is already successfully used to detect image-based diseases such as cancer and the technology is continuously evolving to enable much wider use cases within healthcare. Successful use cases can encourage further adoption and investment in this technology.

“Together with the development of a robust regulatory framework, it is imperative to prioritize patient education regarding the technology. This education should aim to enhance comprehension of AI’s utilization, its potential advantages, and associated adoption risks, ultimately fostering increased trust in AI. Enhanced knowledge empowers individuals to make informed decisions and mitigate biases linked to this technology.”

The survey data also reveals that younger surveyed patients (18-55 years old) were more likely to be familiar with AI than older (56+ years) patients, with more than 50% of them rating their knowledge as moderately or very familiar. Younger generations tend to be introduced to technology earlier in their life and as a result have more knowledge as well as confidence in technologies like AI.

Jakimaviciute concludes: “While AI adoption is inevitable, it must be inclusive. Even though younger generations may drive the use and adoption of AI, building a fair and ethical AI system will need intergenerational collaboration. AI use will need to address generation-wide issues, and therefore it is essential to ensure that all generations can benefit from the adoption of AI.”

*574 patients from the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan, Brazil, Canada, India, and Mexico were surveyed between July 2023 – August 2023.